“Design is everything. Everything!” Legendary graphic designer Paul Rand’s words are as iconic as his numerous, highly recognizable corporate logos of the 1950s and 1960s, including ABC, IBM, and UPS. Even as AI-generated imagery becomes increasingly ubiquitous in Facebook feeds and beyond, graphic design remains everything in the 2020s, as the demand for masters of visual communication keeps growing across industries. IBISWorld anticipates that, despite the wide availability of Canva and other user-friendly software, profits in the global graphic design market will remain healthy as it continues to expand throughout the decade.
Enrolling in a high-quality graphic design class can be the first step for aspiring Graphic Designers in a rewarding career journey, or for practicing Graphic Designers, an advanced graphic design class can help them level up and remain relevant and in demand in their field. Meanwhile, as appreciation, desire, and need for good design continue to grow throughout businesses across sectors, countless professionals in adjacent fields can benefit their own careers and their place of business alike by growing graphic design skills by attending a graphic design course that fits their specific needs. While no graphic design class can be labeled “the best” option to help every learner meet their personal goals, this article will help you find the best fit for you and your graphic design learning needs.
Noble Desktop offers a comprehensive Graphic Design Certificate program for students looking to learn professional design skills and start a new career. This course covers everything that prospective designers will need to know, including how to use industry-standard tools, like the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop and important philosophies of design. Students will get hands-on practice working with these tools, and they will work on practical projects that they can add to their professional portfolios to help them find work after completing the course.
There are also individual courses available for students to learn tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. These classes are built with practical, hands-on training in mind, and students who take these classes will get detailed instruction from professionals who have years of graphic design experience. Students enrolled in these courses will leave the course ready to start working with these programs in a professional capacity, and they will have a foundational set of skills that they can build upon in more advanced graphic design courses.
Why is Learning Graphic Design Important?
Bookshelves, social media feeds, signage, magazines—the list of places where graphic design takes up our visual space is seemingly endless. With this ubiquity of graphic design, it’s no wonder many learn the tools and techniques of the field to launch a rewarding, in-demand Graphic Designer career.
However, studying graphic design offers benefits for professionals and others who don’t necessarily aspire to become Graphic Designers. Some reasons to learn the principles, tools, and techniques of graphic design include:
- Building visual communication skills: From user interface web design to slide deck presentations, graphic design skills can help professionals across industries make their visual communication projects more effective and aesthetically pleasing.
- Developing digital literacy: Graphic design knowledge can help anyone develop their digital literacy in the twenty-first century, an invaluable skill in creating standout social media posts, engaging data visualizations, effective internal reports, and otherwise communicating their ideas clearly across digital formats.
- Enhancing problem-solving skills: Design thinking skills have applications far beyond graphic design, enabling professionals in various sectors to foster creativity and innovation in themselves and within their organizations.
- Personal and creative development: Attending a graphic design class can improve artists’ confidence and understanding of principles like color theory and balance while allowing anyone to improve their aesthetic sensibilities and add more creativity to their daily lives.
What Can You do With Graphic Design Skills?
While all applications of graphic design skills involve creating effective visual communication, professionals use these skills to communicate through dozens of different mediums. Graphic design’s remarkable versatility allows professionals to adapt their skills to uses ranging from infographics and data visualizations to wayfinding signage and environmental design. Brand identity and logo design, web and user interface design, marketing and advertising materials, and print media and publishing are a few of the most common and in-demand areas where the public sees graphic design in action today.
Brand Identity and Logo Design
From the smallest startups to the largest corporations, standing out in the visually saturated landscape of the twenty-first century is more challenging than ever. The necessity of being seen and immediately recognizable across all branding and marketing materials has made the demand for strong graphic design skills higher than ever. Aspiring Graphic Designers interested in branding and logo design have nothing to fear from low-budget freelancers, depending on user-friendly design applications, as creating logos and other visual elements that represent a company’s identity requires extensive graphic design skills.
Those looking for graphic design classes to help them prepare for work in brand identity and logo design should look for curricula that stress typography and color theory, two essential design principles for understanding how to select visual elements that accurately represent businesses and effectively communicate their values and messages. Vector graphics creation and scalable design techniques are also a must, as logos and other brand designs often appear across screens and print materials of various sizes and formats. Finally, logo design principles and brand style guide development are two graphic design skills specific to this area that aspiring branding experts will want to ensure they develop during their graphic design training.
Marketing and Advertising Materials
While they prominently feature brand identity and logo designs, marketing and advertising materials use visuals to communicate more specific messages and sell products to potential clients and customers. Professionals working on marketing and advertising materials use graphic design skills to transform complex information about services and products into social media posts, posters, magazine ads, and other digital and print advertisements. Whether they work for an agency or in-house for a single organization, Graphic Designers specializing in marketing and advertising materials can count on ample work as businesses across industries will always need their services to create compelling visual communication that engages customers, enhances brand visibility, and drives sales.
Marketing and advertising materials are among the most common media that pay the bills for Graphic Designers, so the content of many graphic design classes is ideal for preparing to launch a career in this area. Some of the most essential graphic design skills for advertising and marketing include design principles like composition and visual hierarchy, layout design, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and social media graphics optimization. The basics of motion graphics, ad banner expertise, and persuasive design techniques that depend on some understanding of customer psychology and behavior are a few specialized graphic design skills with a place in a marketing and advertising toolkit.
Web and User Interface Design
Individuals primarily interested in the digital application of graphic design have ample opportunity to apply their skills in the web and user interface design sector. While Graphic Designers will sometimes work directly in this area, Web Designers and UI Designers with graphic design skills more commonly focus on creating visually appealing and user-friendly digital experiences. Whatever their title, a professional working in web and user interface design focuses on creating engaging and intuitive web pages. Graphic design skills are essential for crafting websites and other digital interfaces that are as pleasing to the eye as they are easy to use.
Current Web Designers and UI Designers can take graphic design classes to level up their technically correct designs with mastery of graphic design principles that can help them create color schemes, layouts, and menus that communicate beautifully and effectively with their users. Meanwhile, those learning graphic design to work primarily on websites and user interfaces will want to ensure that, in addition to these principles and the core Adobe Creative Cloud applications for Graphic Designers, they also master the more technical skills of web and UI design. These include a basic understanding of HTML and CSS, interactive design elements like buttons and menus, responsive design, and wireframing and prototyping.
Print Media and Publishing
As undeniable as the rapid growth of the digital landscape is, print media and publishing are still a thriving sector where Graphic Designers are in high demand. Another of the more popular media where professionals apply their graphic design skills today, print media and publishing include selecting and arranging typography and creating layouts, often to support long-form reading. They may also draw and arrange illustrations for printed materials, such as books, magazines, and newspapers.
A solid knowledge of design principles is a must when applying graphic design skills in print media and publishing, as is Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Additionally, graphic design skills exclusive to print and publishing are essential for Graphic Designers who plan to work primarily with this medium. Print production knowledge is a must, such as an understanding of CMYK and crop marks, so designers are able to confidently handle prepress file preparation. Magazine and book layout design skills allow designers to organize text and images for readability on a physical page, while understanding areas such as image resolution optimization and paper stock allows Graphic Designers to ensure the final printed products meet quality standards.
How to Decide Which Graphic Design Class is Right for You
The vast number of graphic design classes available today can be overwhelming for those wishing to find the best fit for their specific learning aspirations. Below, learners will find a manageable number of factors to consider so they can choose the graphic design class that most aligns with their circumstances, preferences, and goals with confidence.
Course Content
A learner should start their search for a graphic design class with confidence and clarity in their personal goals before closely examining and comparing course content to find the one that best aligns with their specific aspirations. While some students will need a comprehensive program that provides all the training required to launch a Graphic Designer career, a simpler short course on foundational design principles may be all others need to reach their goals of improving the aesthetics of a current work project. Closely reading course descriptions and syllabi will help prospective graphic design students determine which classes most closely align with their needs. Learners will also want to ascertain whether they meet any course prerequisites, or they can enroll in a beginner-friendly class if they are new to graphic design.
In-Person vs. Online
The variety of course formats available today makes graphic design classes more accessible than ever. For many, the choice between an in-person or online class will be easy to make based on the courses offered in their local area. Meeting in brick-and-mortar classrooms or computer labs, in-person graphic design classes provide the most traditional learning experience. Many will always prefer this learning style when it is an option, but those outside of major metropolitan areas may struggle to find in-person classes that align with their needs and schedules within their geographic regions.
Fortunately, live online graphic design classes provide a very similar learning environment to in-person classes and are available anywhere in the world without the hassle of a commute. Live online classes differ from on-demand classes in that they feature regular meeting times led by a live instructor in a teleconferencing classroom, mirroring the experience of in-person students meeting with a teacher in a traditional classroom. On-demand graphic design classes, also known as asynchronous or self-paced classes, offer the most flexible experience, as they provide a fully prepackaged curriculum for students to work through at their own pace. However, they lack a set schedule of sessions with a live instructor to provide real-time guidance and feedback, which can be a considerable drawback for most learning a topic as nuanced as graphic design.
Budget and Schedule
A learner’s personal budget is an essential factor to keep in mind when looking for the graphic design class that best aligns with their needs and goals. Schools offer graphic design classes at a variety of price points, though prospective students should keep in mind that professional skill development is well worth the necessary expense. On-demand courses can be cheaper as their overhead is less without a live instructor to pay and with less frequent curriculum updates. The school's reputation, the instructor's experience level, the class's length, and the curriculum's depth are some factors that will influence the price of a graphic design class. When looking at comprehensive certificate programs and bootcamps, learners will find that the quality and extent of these programs’ career support can also affect tuition significantly.
The most significant benefit of on-demand classes is their ability to fit any learner’s calendar, though at the expense of the structure and accountability of a set schedule. Short courses on graphic design—whether introductory or advanced—tend to be easily squeezed into most people’s calendars, as these range from a few hours to a few days. However, comprehensive graphic design bootcamps and certificate programs can require extensive planning, as full-time versions of these courses are intensive, requiring students to dedicate their time exclusively to their studies anywhere from four to eight weeks. Those who need to continue to work or attend to other responsibilities while attending a graphic design bootcamp can look for part-time options. Part-time graphic design bootcamps feature the same comprehensive training for aspiring Graphic Designers as full-time ones, but at a slower pace, often stretched to four to eight months of class sessions, meeting two or three evenings a week.
Reviews
When comparing two or more graphic design classes with curricula, locations, price points, and schedules that align with a learner’s needs, former students’ reviews are essential reading material for narrowing down options to the best one. Class descriptions, syllabi, and other information on school websites and course-finding tools can provide prospective students with an overview of what to expect from a graphic design course, but reviews share invaluable perspectives of student experience. Reviews may reveal the quality of instructors and career support, the exact skill set learners acquired, and the impact of the course on their careers. Integrating these insights with official course information can empower prospective students to confidently identify the best graphic design class for their educational and professional aspirations.
Final Takeaways
Comprehensive bootcamps and certificate programs are the most streamlined path from beginner to job readiness for those looking for all-in-one training to launch a Graphic Designer career. When looking for the best graphic design bootcamp, aspiring Graphic Designers will want to take their time considering several factors that will shape this significant commitment of time and money to ensure they enroll in the best option for them.
- Check YouTube and school websites to see if the course provider offers free seminars or tutorials to help prospective students get a taste of the learning experience they may expect in the bootcamp
- Look beyond the schools’ websites for reviews on aggregate sites like Career Karma and Course Report
- Google and search LinkedIn to find out more about the course instructors, including their credentials, past industry experience, and if they’ve written articles or appeared as guests on graphic design podcasts
- Assess and compare the career support services included in the cost of tuition and determine which will be the most helpful